cActsix. 13; σὸν τοῖς " ἁγίοις πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ᾿Αχαΐᾳ" 2. χάρις ὑμῖν
1 Cor. xvi.
ἀπ chap. καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ Κυρίου ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ.
ΣΦ ὁ 4 Εὐλογητὸς ὁ “Θεὸς καὶ “πατὴρ τοῦ "Κυρίου ἡμῶν “᾿Ιησοῦ dPs. ο "Χριστοῦ, ὁ πατὴρ τῶν ‘ οἰκτιρμῶν καὶ " Θεὸς πάσης " παρακλήσεως,
53: Lki 4. ὁ Ὁ παρακαλῶν ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ ᾿θλίψει ἡμῶν, εἰς τὸ δύνασθαι ἐν ἴχ, 5, ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖν τοὺς ἐν πάσῃ θλίψει, διὰ τῆς παρακλήσεως ἧς
ε Rom. xv. 6; Eph. i. 3; chap. xi. 31; 1 Pet. i. 5; Phil. ii. 1; 2 Thess. ii. 16. b Isa. li. 14,
Roman province of Achaia included the whole country which we call Greece (ex- cluding Macedonia), and it is in this large sense that the name is used here (cf. ix. 2 below).
Ver. 2. ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πατρὸς x.t.A.: this coupling of the names of God our Father and the Lord Fesus Christ as alike the source of grace and peace is most signi- ficant in its bearing upon St. Paul’s Christology (cf. xiii. 13).
I. The Obedience of the Corin- thians to the Instructions of the First Epistle (i. 3—vii. 16). This is the main topic of the first section of this Epistle. Vv. 3-7: THANKSGIVING; Gop’s CONSOLATIONS AND THE SYMPATHY OF Sorrow. St. Paul’s habit is to begin his letters with an expression of thank- fulness for the Christian progress of his correspondents. The only exceptions are the Epp. to Titus and to the Gala- tians (in this case he had received bad news from Galatia). In 1 Tim. i. 12 the cause of his thankfulness is the exhibition of the Divine mercy to himself; and this Epistle begins with a like thought, from which he passes (ver, 14) to his confident belief that the Corinthian Christians are still his καύχ It was especially im- portant that a letter which was so largely taken up with rebuke and with the asser- tion of his apostolical authority should begin with a pee ἢ of sympathy and hopefulness (vv. τα ff.).
Ver. 3. εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς κ.τ.λ.; blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Fesus Christ. Note that τοῦ Κνρίον is depen- dent on Θεός as well as on πατήρ; cf: Eph. i. 17, and John xx. 17, Rev. i. 6 This is the starting-point of the Christian revelation, that the Supreme is “the God and Father" of Jesus Christ; He
is εὐλογητός (7772), the Object of
His creatures’ blessing. The verb is not expressed, but the analogy of 1 Pet. iv. 11 would indicate that ἐστίν rather than ἔστω should be understood. A doxology is not a prayer, but (cf. Matt. vi. 13, and
f Isa. Ixiii. 15, 16; Rom. xii. 1. g Rom. xv.
i. 13. i Ver. 8; chaps. ii. 4, iv. 17, Vi. 4, Vili. 2, 13.
John xii. 13, a close parallel) a thankful and adoring statement of the Divine goodness and power.—é πατὴρ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν : the Father of mercies, sc., from whom merciful acts proceed; olx- τιρμός, compassion, is the very charac- teristic of a Father’s providence; see reff. and Luke vi. 36.---καὶ Θεὸς πάσης παρακλήσεως : and God of all comfort, sc., from whom every consolation pro- ceeds. We have παράκλησις applied to God in Ο.Τ., ¢g., in Ps. xciil. το, αἱ παρακλήσεις σον ἠγάπησαν τὴν ψυχήν pov; and the word is adopted in the N.T. for the Divine comfort not only b St. Paul (see reff.), but by St. Luke (ii, 25 and Acts ix. 31), and by St. John, νυ describes alike the Spirit (John xiv. 16, xv. 26, xvi. 7) and the Son (1 John ii. 1) as the παράκλητος.
Ver. 4. ὁ παρακαλῶν ἡμᾶς κ.τ.λ.;: who comforteth us in all our affliction (the def. art. indicating trials actually pep. The verb παρακαλεῖν has three shades of meaning, (a) to beseech, eighteen times in St. Paul, (δ) to exhort, seventeen times, (c) to comfort, thirteen